Harper responded that his government has, in fact, improved service at Veterans Affairs.

“Here is the reality,” he said. “We have taken resources out of backroom administration, from bureaucracy. We’ve put it into services. There are more benefits and more money for benefits than ever before.”

According to departmental performance reports filed with the Treasury Board, Veterans Affairs had the equivalent of 4,039 full-time employees in 2008-09. That number fell to 3,050 by 2013-14.

More than half of those cuts came from a program called Health Care and Re-Establishment Benefits and Services.

The program is in charge of helping with the physical, mental and social well-being of veterans and to “provide access to employment support, health benefits, home care and long-term care.”

Last year, there were 1,536 employees in that division, down 619, or almost 30 per cent, from 2009.

Auditor general Michael Ferguson heard anecdotally that Veterans Affairs caseworkers were overworked. But auditors said when they tried to examine this, the department did not have sufficient statistics on caseloads to analyze the issue.

Fantino has had to repeatedly rebuff calls for his resignation this week.

On Tuesday, Cape Breton-Canso Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner pointed to disastrous meetings between Fantino and veterans that were caught by TV cameras.

In one meeting, Fantino was widely seen to be scolding a group of veterans. In another, when he tried to leave, he was chased down a hallway by the wife of a veteran.

“This has played out like a bad movie and this minister has been the star in each of those scenes,” Cuzner said.

“When will the prime minister remove this minister?”

Fantino responded that the opposition “continues to misrepresent and manifest all kinds of fearmongering.”

He said his department has increased funding and is in the process of making several reforms to improve service.

Though staff numbers have fallen since 2009, overall funding has remained steady. The department’s budget of $3.5 billion last year was up moderately from $3.44 billion in 2008-09, though funding did dip slightly in the years in between.

Neither Fantino nor Harper would comment on a British Columbia Court Of Appeal case this week, wherein the government argues that vows from past prime ministers of a sacred obligation to care for veterans was just political speech and not legally binding.

Fantino’s office pointed out that the legislation at the centre of that dispute, the New Veterans Charter, was passed under the previous Liberal government and supported by all parties.